Roche-Guillaume
Last Templar stronghold in Antioch, lost to the Mamluks.
La Roche-Guillaume, likely the site now called Çalan Kalesi, was a Knights Templar fortress near the Syrian Gates in modern Hatay Province, Turkey. It was the final Templar stronghold in Antioch before falling to the Mamluks.
Quick Facts
- Alternate identification
- Çalan Kalesi
- Region
- Near the Syrian Gates, Hatay Province, Turkey
- Previous occupants
- de la Roche family
- Date of armenian capture
- 1203
- Date of templar recapture
- 1237
- Date of muslim reconquest
- 1298–99
Facts from the source article.
Origin
The Templars' initial possession date of the fortress is not recorded, though it was earlier held by the de la Roche family. A legend recounts that in 1188 Saladin besieged the castle seeking revenge against the knight Jean Gale, who had been excommunicated for murder and later found refuge with Saladin. Gale, entrusted with educating Saladin's nephew, turned the boy over to the Templars to regain Christian standing, prompting Saladin's attack. The siege may have ended early when news arrived that King Guy de Lusignan had led knights into Tripoli as precursors to the Third Crusade. In 1203 the king of Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia captured the castle, but the Templars reclaimed it in 1237, around the time they also campaigned to retake the nearby castle of Trapessac. The Mamluks reconquered Roche-Guillaume in 1298–99 during an invasion of northern Syria, also seizing Servantikar.
Location and Characteristics
Scholars disagree on the exact location; Paul Deschamps identifies it as Çalan Kalesi, while Claude Cahen suggests Çalan may be Roche de Roissel, another Templar castle. All agree it lay in the Amanus, on the border of the Principality of Antioch and Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Others place it eastward on a plateau at a 1250 m rocky precipice above the Karasu Çayı plain near the Euphrates, controlling the road to Antioch. Little remains but ruins, showing the builders used the rock as a cut foundation. The structure may be Byzantine in origin or at least long maintained by the Byzantines. The best-preserved part is the chapel, typical of military order fortresses, whose condition further suggests Byzantine custodianship.
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